Kamal Ghorui
New Delhi: In a bid to provide some reprieve to airlines badly affected by the US-Iran war, the aviation ministry has directed 34 major airports to reduce their landing and parking charges by 25% for three months, for domestic flights. Accordingly, the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) on Tuesday issued an order directing the operators of airports at places like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and many others to do so with effect from Tuesday for three months. Govt is looking at ways to provide some relief to Indian carriers, most of whom are struggling to survive. The hike in domestic ATF was capped at 25% this month for that reason. With assembly elections in crucial states like Kerala and West Bengal on the horizon, the aviation ministry is making all possible attempts to ensure that at least domestic airfare hikes don’t defy gravity. The ministry made a rare intervention in airport tariffs, given the fact that a majority of them are run on PPP model.The order reads: “Landing and parking charges (part of aeronautical tariff) at all major airports shall be reduced by 25% from the prevailing tariff. This reduction comes into immediate effect and will be applicable on all domestic flights for a period of three months. The decision shall be reviewed prior to completion of the three-month period. Any under-recovery from aggregate revenue requirement will be trued-up during the tariff determination of the next control period.”This month, oil marketing PSUs hiked aviation turbine fuel base price for domestic and international flights by 25% and over 100%, respectively. Coupled with airspace restrictions to the west that force airlines to take much longer routes to Europe and America, apart from far fewer flights on the lucrative Gulf routes, and a weak rupee, airlines have been badly hit. The Air India group and IndiGo have hied their fuel surcharge.
